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 Auction
house have always been places where exclusive and rare items can be purchased
for the appropriate price in any sphere of life. It’s like the bazaar but the
atmosphere, and items and prices differ to the high society class level.
Jewelry of historic value has been auctioned for many years already. The jewel
used to belong to monarchs and accessories still living with the trace of epoch
and life of owners are offered for sale there. Sometimes the masterpieces of the
world culture and highest value appear there put to auction.
Diamonds sold at
Christie's
The world-known auction house Christie's
still strike the world with the fabulous revenues madeon sale of
antiques and art works throughout four hundred years already. However,
the auctioned items sometimes have the
value from the historic point of view, leaving aside material value.
So, in
April 2010 the Emperor Maximilian diamond was auction, the diamond belonging to
the famous Mexican Emperor Ferdinand Maximilian Josef. The life story of this Mexican
ruler is amazing but sad. Maximilian was keen on biology since childhood and he
showed negligence to all those royal liabilities. In 1860 he travelled to the
long-waited Brazilian tropic jungles where he acquired two diamond further
called as Maximilian I and Maximilian II Diamonds. The Maximilian II diamond
was the stone of yellow to green shade weighing over 33 carats which was
granted to his wife, Carlotta, the Princess. She used to wear the diamond as a
pendant in the lavish necklace. The Maximilian I of the highest crystal purity
weighing 42 carats was the Emperor’s jewel only. Some time later when Napoleon III
seized the devastated Mexico,
Maximilian was offered to accept the royal regalia to become the powerful and
authorized ruler of the country. Nonetheless, Maximilian faced the fake power
to be governed by the European monarchs as the puppet only even if the
absolutely honest and respectable marionette in regards to his citizens. Left
without any security and financial support, Maximilian, the Emperor of Mexico,
fell conquered by the republican and was sentenced by the military tribunal to
be shot together with two Generals subject to him. The Emperor was only in his
thirties at that time. After the capital punishment breast sag was taken off
the deceased with the diamond inside. The diamond was delivered to Carlotta,
the Princes, the young widow inconsolable in her grief. Her mind reeled when
she heard about the death of the Emperor and the expensive treatment was
required to recover. They had to sell the precious stone and further the
Maximilian I appeared at auction houses to be sold and change owners. Only in
1982 the stone was professionally facetted to turn into the jewel of the
highest jewelry quality when the King of diamonds and the founder of the Graff
Diamonds Lawrence Graff purchased the precious stone at the next auction. The platinum
ring with the Emperor Maximilian diamond of 39,55 carats was sold for the last
time for $1,762,5 mln to the anonymous buyer.
Last Emperor's
Watches
The auction
house Sotheby's in Geneva
put to auction the wristlet watches Oyster Perpetual Rolex in 2002 made from
the yellow gold incrusted with diamonds. A lot that seemed to be trivial for
the luxury class items as the most Rolex models made from precious metal.
However, this very lot belonged to the last Emperor of Vietnam Bao Dai. The governor
excelled in the special love to luxury life and he adhered to the European life
style rather than Asian. When the communist party came to govern in 1945 Bao Dai
abdicated and left the country. He preferred to become the citizen of France with the
freedom than the marionette ruling the country by the power of other
authorities.
The Emperor
purchased his watch Oyster Perpetual in 1945 at the Rolex Boutique in Geneva during the peace negotiations to end the colonial
war of France in Vietnam. The
model Oyster Perpetual with diamonds and the black dial plate was made in
limited edition, in three copies only, with the water-proof feature. Therefore the
watch was called the Oyster. Moreover, it had the system of automated winding,
first in the world. The Oyster Perpetual Rolex was estimated for 235 thousand
USD to the private collector at Sotheby's.
A necklace by Catherine
Things just
happen that sometimes the jewelry with the really rich history is valued for
hundred times higher than the item with the identical features and set of
precious stones and metal. Auction houses chase their intention to make easier
money on that feature. The accident that happened at the Sotheby's auction in
2005 drove to nonplus the society and the founders of such high class trading.
An anonymous buyer had to pay about $2 mln for the necklace classified as the
Emperor jewelry belonging to Catherine II. The jewelry was presented as the collar
with 27 diamonds, with the bow pendant by the necklace contour. However, according
to historical papers dated back to 1796, the actual necklace belonging to
Catherine II was made from 25 diamonds, thirteen of which were withdrawn for
other jewelry items. Some more diamonds were removed for other purposes till
the 19th century. On the top of it, such details as bows were missing
in the authentic jewel. It follows that the missing diamonds appeared in the necklace
far later as well as the pendant, and the quality of the jewel is different
from the real one. Therefore, the historic value of the Imperial jewelry has
still been doubted till today.
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